I went with the unboxed NES and and a smattering of games across gen 1 and 2

Boxed would have been nice but not sure I really want Mario bros that much and it's not hard to find (and see below for my ultimate solution that just happened to be in the cabinet , I've always wanted to play super Mario world since I got a fake eBay GBA cart that died 15 years ago)

The NES is great condition, got 2nd controller

NESExcitebikeSnake Rattle and Roll (thanks Kerr I had no idea this was a classic Rare platformer and 2 player as well)Blaster Master

Vagrant story is great, I have it digital on ps3. Holds up fairly well on the HDTV .

Similar price in the shop when I saw it, interesting action battle and targeting system. The comic book style dialogue is less plodding than most RPGs scrolling text boxes.

I considered secret of evermore on the action RPG front but it's a little dear for what seems to be considered a slightly sub par Mana like game that came from Square's first US studio. I think I will hold out for a reasonably priced cart of Secret of Mana to play 2 player co op.

I have to play through Earthbound on Wii U and also got rune factory on 3DS before I pick up any top down RPGs to be reasonable.

Forgot the mention there were 2 gradius spiritual/other name GB games for 5 and 4 quid , Nemesis 1 and 2, originally for the MSX. Might be a fun pick up for shmup play in bed on the GBA SP as I don't actually have any portable shmups apart from both Oopa games on 3DS, which are strange things (not your normal linear level and formations, just gooseberry fool going on randomly everywhere). I reckon someome will snap them both of up though.

Really need to try some sort of solution for big N64 picture as some games like banjo tooie and jet Force Gemini (as I just discovered) have wide-screen modes which is pretty great. Some European geezer seems to make S-video cables for 64 that I could then convert to scart as my TV doesn't have a socket. Will that just overly process the picture and not produce much benefit though hmmm.

It's possible to accept s video through a graphics card but that would be a total ballache to set up monitoring.

It's certainly enjoyable, my set does an enviable job (although 240i retro stuff looks abysmal) but having played n64 games on emulators and sin and punishment on Wii U with hdmi I know it can be so much better.

Your right Ad7 some of these places really don't seem to think about it. The blaster master , yeah great it's on a part of the cart you can easily pull it off and clean but when the stick prices on cart labels etc it's highly annoying.

Its great to see your stuff GG I'm a big fan of empire of steel as well it's a cool game.

Lol, this comes up every time anyone sees them and it gets them going rate hard. They use a special supply of really low yield stickers that come right off anything with no residue whatsoever. Drives them mad on Facebook as someone always says "but those stickers eeeugh"

It's very helpful being able to see all the prices clearly as the carts are all laid out flat in a cabinet.

Steel Empire (as I believe it's known elsewhere and is the name in the game text) is awesome, the end of level 3 where it reverses direction and you have to speed out of a cavern at 60fps is wicked! I love it when you get surprised like that especially in an old game.

Picked up a few things from cex in passing; PC copies of Toca Race Driver and NFS III Hot Pursuit,and PS2 copies of Ridge Racer V and Star Trek Encounters. I already had RRV but the paper case slip had been damaged - this copy was in much better nick and cost 50p so seemed a worthwhile improvement.